11/26/2023
State Office of Addiction Services and Supports opens $26M residential facility in the Bronx.
A $26 million treatment center for New Yorkers with substance use disorder is now open near the Melrose neighborhood of the Bronx, the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports announced.
The Elizabeth L. Sturz Treatment Center, located at 830 Forrest Ave., will offer 114 beds for men and women with co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder, as well as patients who are HIV positive, were formerly incarcerated and who formerly experienced homelessness. Individuals can access case management services, residential evidence-based treatment and a medically-supervised outpatient substance use disorder clinic.
According to the state, Argus Community Inc., a Bronx-based service agency, will operate the center. Argus provides New Yorkers with psychosocial rehabilitation services, chronic illness and HIV care for adults and children, and substance use prevention services in addition to residential and outpatient options.
OASAS provided more than $26 million for the construction of the building, according to a release on its opening, and almost $3 million in annual operational funding.
The center opened on the heels of the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene releasing new data that shows that more than 3,000 New Yorkers died from overdoses in 2022, an all-time high. The Bronx had the highest rate of deaths, with overdoses killing more than 74 people per 100,000 residents that year.
According to OASAS, the agency oversees about 1,700 prevention, treatment and recovery programs that serve more than 731,000 people throughout the state each year. The office directly operates 12 Addiction Treatment Centers that care for 8,000 residential individuals annually.
Pictured from left to right:
Daniel Lowy (Interim Co-Executive Director), Cynthia Delarosa (Interim Co-Executive Director), Leslie Ross (Vice-Chair and Secretary, Board of Directors), Former President and CEO, Richard Weiss, William Friedman (Chairperson and Treasurer - Board of Directors), Anna Lomax Wood (Daughter of Argus Community Founder, Elizabeth L. Sturz), Patrick Okolo (Project Manager -Dormitory Authority of the State of New York), Chinazo Cunningham (Commissioner – Office of Addiction Services and Supports), Tom Javits (Director – Board of Directors), Janet Paquerro (Bronx Deputy Borough President), Fred Harris (Director – Board of Directors).